Ethiopia - United States Mapping Mission

Please send additional information relevant to Dover Field party to leemiller@ethi-usmappingmission.com.

ASSORTED PHOTOS of Dover Field Party can be found at the bottom of this page.

LT. Humke (photo and additional information as of yet unavailable).

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CWO David B. Huffine (Huff the Magic Dragon)replaced LT. Humke as OIC of Dover Field Party

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OIC Dover Party 1968-70

Dave Moore -- 1968 - 1970 Dave with the Dover Battle Flag. Scroll down to read Dave Moore's adventures of Dover Party in 1969 -- on this page following the "Members Photos".

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Milton Bailey - 1967-68

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SGT (E-5) Robert M. Chew July 1967 - July 1969

Robert M. Chew was NCOIC of Dover field party for a time. He later ran the Resupply Section and ended his tour in Ethiopia as liaison NCO for Kagnew Station in Asmara.

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Dan Kula with Ousha (dog in Amharic)

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Dana Levy was TDY from Tompkins Barracks, Germany for 100 days (May 1967 to September 1967) and assigned to Dover field party.

CLICK HERE to view Dana's photos and to view his "Stories and Memories" page.

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Michael C. Norvell arrived Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from Tripoli, Libya in November of 1965 and left in February 1967.

CLICK HERE for Michael Norvell's photo page.

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Time has dimmed my memory for places and time periods concerning the
adventures of Dover Party in 1969 and corrections by others are welcomed. Each
survey party maintained a daily log during the MM project and access to these
records would provide the most accurate story of who was where and what
occurred.

Arrived in Addis in late Dec 68, installed in the BOQ at the old Ghana Embassy,
and paid a quick visit by air to Asosa to assess the circumstances of Dover.
Then back to Addis to assemble additional equipment.

I was surprised to learn that the geodetic level rods were being used for
leveling operations to control vertical picture points. I then learned that all of
the rod cases had 2 x 8 planks nailed to the bottoms thereof as the cases were
broken due to being carried in 3/4 ton trucks. I took immediate action to have
the planks removed (most were full of termites) and had 4 foot long hardened
aluminum plates tightly affixed to the case sides with closely spaced stove
bolts. I also purchased 2 sets of 3 meter folding leveling rods for Dover party.
Then I painted a typical 0.1 foot pattern on the reverse of the rods. I also told
the S-3 that all survey teams should be supplied with this type rod, which I
don't think was ever done.

Back to Asosa (N1002E3433) on ACZ with a load of equipment. Met the family
of missionaries which ran the leprosarium, spent the night, and then north to the
TPR area SW of the Blue Nile, passing thru Mengi (N10.20E34.45) and
established camp (N10.38E35,03) at the end of the road (trait) near a wadi
which contained a large pool of water. The approx 45 mile caravan required
about 8 hours. It was our Intent to move further NE to the Nile but we were
blocked from further progress by the vegetation. While setting up camp I
learned the true condition of the Dover party equipage and vehicles. The
vehicles and equipment in Ethiopia were those that had been in Libya and they
had been through the mill. I was later told that the MM had been offered new
vehicles when beginning the project, but had demurred.

A long list of needed supplies by radio to Addis the next day.
Except along the road, it was all on foot so a Huey was placed on order. The
first two PP were near the road. A level line had been observed by a USC&GS
crew along the way in a about 1955 so that control was near at hand. All stations were
burrs on large boulders. As there was little cultural detail the location of the
first BM was a real problem. Late one after-noon while Dave Thomas and I
were searching in a wadi we saw a shadow on a large boulder that looked rather
weird as it was 2 parallel straight lines. Further examination showed it to be a
lightly chiseled burr. We had found the Rosetta Stone.

In about I966, while at a surveyors meeting in Austin TX, I made mention of
surveying near the Blue Nile and a fellow named Charles Ottmers, from
Fredericksburg TX, told me that be bad been on the level crew in '55 and that it
had been a really major operation to run the line. The reason for the almost
invisible burrs was due to destruction of any readily visible mark by the natives.
This was the same area where the Witawe killed an explorer in the 50's.

Every field camp had at least one dog. Their job was to alert the crew to
unknown Ethi's and animals near the camp. When I joined Dover there were
two dogs, Marsola , who was picked up by Steve Curren at Mkele and was the
best camp dog I have ever known, and Chicken Shit who belonged to Dan
Hoffman. There was an AMSFAR (Army Map Service Foreign Activities) Reg
that stated only one dog per camp- Apparently there had been previous
controversy about camp dogs. When we departed the Nile River Camp the dogs
were nowhere to be found. So I decided to caravan and figured the dogs would
follow us (a really big mistake). At the next camp I was informed by a local
that the two dogs were killing goats, had been captured by the locals, and we
should come and get them. Back to Mengi. Paid, as I remember, 4 or 5
hundred (Ethi) dollars for goals and holding the dogs. Chicken Shit was really
acting strange, we wondered if she had contracted rabies, and were prepared to
kill her- A local wanted her and as Dan really wasn't too concerned about the
loss, so she stayed. Later Kirkland picked up a small dog but it was soon run
over while sleeping under a truck. Marsola, later was sent to Addis (I forget
who took him) for shots and worming- While there he ate poisoned meat and
died. We picked up another dog, George, who turned out to be the sorriest dog
in the world.

Steve Curren and Marsola

George the dog

With the Huey, total collapse of a 3/4, failure of a number of truck springs, and
a 2-1/2 clutch we completed the TPR area and moved south to Yeha Village
(N09.27E34.10). While at this location we were informed that we had not been
given one of the PP required along the Nile so we sent a small crew with 3
trucks, a lot of parts, tires, gas, and the mechanic back up to finish the job.

Again, problems at Yeha Village, of access by vehicle to the PP, One item that
could have saved a lot of effort in the project was the little motorized army
mule that was available at that time. It was very low geared and slow, but
would carry 6 guys sitting on it- Mainly, it was about 3 feet wide and would
navigate most animal and fool trails- Also, 4 guys could pick it up and move It.
There was the same problem in Liberia that Patty Bishop had planned to attack
using Gravely Tractors, but I don't know what became of it. In the '50s we had
machine gun carts, but they were man powered.

To Gembi (N09.12E35.50) with the usual vehicle problems but access to the
TPR area and PP was not difficult.

Then on to Dembidolo (N08.34E34.52) where we suffered complete failure of
every vehicle except, as I recollect, one 2-1/2 van. Mechanics, parts, and a
welder were flown in to effect repair. We completed the TPR area, with
continuing vehicle failure, the rains came, and it was decided to have us return
to Addis for vehicle rebuild.

Another 3/4 died at Lekempi (N09.03E36.24) and a 2-1/2 van (multifuel) engine
fell down on the steering gear box and holed the fuel injector. Took 2 tries and
about 3 days to get It fixed. On the road again. In the vicinity of
(N08.57E37.32) almost had a 3/4 almost go off the road and down the
mountainside due to a really bad washboard road surface and useless shock
absorbers. It really frightened everyone. We found a campsite and radioed for a
complete set of new shocks for each truck. It took a day or so but I would not
move the caravan until finished. Lost the compressor on a 2 1/2 while on a long
down hill. Got the truck stopped, hooked an air hose between 2 trucks to keep
pressure on the rear truck and made it down the hill safely.

Then got a new compressor sent out. One vehicle hit and killed a cow (it had
taken a druther in the middle of the paved road) in Ambo (N08-59E37.53).
Finally limped in to Addis.

Turned all of the Ethi's loose and the troops occupied porta camps at MM Hq.
Interestingly, the troops did not like the taste of the water at Addis and we
continued to drink water out of our water trailer- I agreed and carried a 5 gal
can of it to the old Ghana Embassy, We got a new 3/4, as the MM had received
5 (I think) new vehicles. Two weeks of vehicle repair and some serious
midnight requisitioning. On our way.

Dover Party caravan leaving Mapping Mission Motor Pool at Leddetta Air Port.

To the Billate River Plantation (N06.47E38.01) and a relatively good road net in
the TPR. Shortly after arrival, Pat, the mechanic, and 1 were sent to Asmara for
dental work. Went out the first evening to the Blue Nile Bar for a beer and
had a well dressed Eritrian woman walk up to me, speaking colloquial
American English, who knew who I was, and what I had been doing. She was
interested in what I knew about Viet Nam. Needless to say, I got out of there.
While at Asmara I was told that my entire crew, sans a couple of Ethis, had been
medevaced to Addis due to symptoms of Rift Valley fever. Both Pat and I had
been suffering headaches and joint pain for a short period of time. Back to
Addis, APC's, and back to the field for all of us. Had a visit from an U.S.Naval
Entomology team who drew blood and said that the APC's were the antidote and
we would get over it.

Billate River Camp

To Arbaminch (N06.05E37.40) for another TPR area.

On the road again. A stop at the resort in Awasa (N06.57E38.25), then through
Shashamoni (N07.12E38.37) and to the next TPR area at Gofole)
(N07.04E38-47), Next to Adaba (N07.01E39.26) at an elev of about 9K feet,
The 3/4 trucks really didn't want to run well. One PP was on the side of a
mountain, about 20K NE of camp and at about 12K feet. Out went the call for
T-2s, T-meters, and helicopter. Fortunately, there were 2 locations along the
road where the PP was visible. Short work of that one. This was in Aug where
an Ethi, walking along the road informed us that man had landed on the moon.
At this elevation it was quite cold and we hired an Ethi with a mule to furnish
wood for our tent stoves. We were informed that we were to move south into
the semi-arid area so we needed to make a short trip to meet Denver Party and
pick-up an extra water trailer. Over to Goba (N07.02E40.00), Resupply and a
short visit with Lee Thomas, who I had last seen at Belvoir.

Dover Camp East of Adaba

To Nagele (N05.20 E39.35) for a relatively easy TPR and on to Melkaguba
(N04.5I E39.18), The town is on the W side of the Dawa River and the TPR and
camp on the S side. The river gorge is about 125 feet deep and the bridge about
75 feet long with no center support structure. It was built by the Italians in the
30's and no part of it has a member longer that about 12 feet, all held together
with large bolts. The deck was wood, full of lengthwise breaks, and of holes
that have been filled with rocks. It is a scary structure. We walked over it first
and tied a ¾ dia line to a tree on the far end and a truck on the near end. The
first vehicle across was a 3/4 in low-low with the driver standing on the running
board and his arm over the rope. With now some evidence that it would not
collapse, the other 3/4's drove over. Then the 2 vans with drivers on the
running boards. The full mogas tanker was left on the west bank, it was brought
across when it was almost empty.

Crossing a Dawa River bridge at Melcaguba (Kirkland in view)

Completing our work we caravanned to a TPR site (N04.15E38.25) NE of Mega
(N04.05E38.10).

A commercial mogas tanker with trailer had been sent from Addis? to an Ethi
Army camp at what I remember as Yabbelo (N04.58E38.13). Unfortunately, it
had no way to pump the fuel from the tanker into ours. We uncapped a vent on
the tanker and wired a piece of inner tube over it, pulled a 2-1/2 next to it,
poked a small hole in the inner tube, pushed an air hose from the 2-1/2 in the
vent and started pumping air in and gas out. The air pressure on the gauge of the
2-1/2 never got above 1 lb but it emptied the tanker into our trucks, gas drums,
and tanker- The trailer was left there and we eventually emptied it the same
way.

On one resupply run to Nagele we encountered a Volkswagen convertible with
two ferenge aboard. They had ETSed from the ASA station at Asmara and were
on their way to Nairobi. They had low tires and 2 bottles of beer, boy were they
scroungy.

We pumped up their tires, gave them some water, and warned them of the dust
In the vicinity of Wachilli Wells (N04.31E38.52) and that they needed to clean
their engine air filter as soon as they were clear of the dust. We returned
to our base camp to find the 2 guys, but no vehicle. It seemed that they had
burned out the engine. They spent a couple of days with us. After we
discovered that they had body lice we had them wash their clothes in gasoline,
and sprayed DDT on everything they had been on or near and then covered the
entire area with DDT powder. We look them down to Mega and heard later that
they had gone to Kenya with a camel caravan. Shortly thereafter we had 2 guys
(Americans) show up on motorcycles who told us there was a third guy on up
the trail that had flat tires and had been left alone. We immediately sent a truck
out and picked him up. Talk about really dumb. We fixed the flats and they
departed, finding out later that one had been in a traffic accident in Nairobi.

Salt hole North of Mega

We surveyed TPR areas in the area of Mount Ganciaro (N04.30E37.52) and
Hobuk (N04.22E37.16). At this time we begin to have fuel delivery problems
with our multifuel engines. Both our vans had these engines and they were only
driven during camp moves. The mogas tanker had a gas engine and was also run
for tire inflation. Each 3/4 had 2 spare tires and we averaged 1 flat per vehicle
per day. We kept 6 spares at camp. We received resupply at an airstrip we
cleared near Ganciaro.

Hobuk Camp

I cannot remember at which field camp south of Nagele the following incident
occurred. We did a lot of tire repair; disassemble tire, patch tube, remove
object from tire casing, reassemble tire, fill with air. We knocked the tires
down using a very worn pick mattock as it worked better than any other method.
The tubes were repaired with heat-activated vulcanization, the heat being a solid
fuel source built into the patch. We received a couple of new boxes of patches
with resupply and went on about our business, except that the new patches
would not vulcanize, even when heated with a propane torch. We radioed Addis
of our problem and they sent down two new boxes; and they didn't work.
Another call to Addis, they had not tried the new patches, and then found out
that none of the new batch worked. We were down to no spares. Addis bought
some Japanese patches, tried them out, and sent some down to us. We had to
strip the tires off of two other 3/4"s to make sure we could get to the airstrip. In
'83 at Lockhart, TX I encountered the fellow who manufactured the lot of
defective patches. He had not forgotten the incident, which involved a whole
bunch of bad patches.

We then departed for a TPR area south of Mega at (N03.50E38.08), about 10mi
NE of the Kenya border. The camp was about 1k feet lower than Mega. It was
heavily covered with scrub trees about 20 feel tall, there were rather tall cinder
cone hills all over, the ground was covered primarily with lava cinders, and
there were no other roads or trails. The nearest water was in Mega. We
immediately ordered up a Huey. It arrived with a civilian pilot who scared the
hell out of the troops with his flying.

I was with him one day when he jumped off a high cinder cone with the low
RPM warning going. We fell halfway down the hill before the thing actually
flew. I spoke to him about his flying and his reply was that he had flown for 30
years and never bent a piece of metal - the troops maintained that he flew
bamboo airplanes. Anyway, he left.

Throughout our entire adventure we never had meat sent out to us, it was always
shot before supper. It was at this camp that the largest animal was taken. A
royal sable shot with a 6mm rifle from a Huey. We had to land away from the
kill, walk back, eviscerate, and haul it to the Huey. It was so big that when its
rear end was at one door, the head and neck were out the other. We cut that off
and loaded it, hopped in the Huey, and could not get it off the ground.
There was a long grassy meadow about 1/2 mi away so the Huey went over
there, we walked, and after a long run we were on the way. We ate off that
animal for a week, the head and rack went back to Addis.

It was at this camp that we discovered the diesel, which was delivered to us by
air from Addis in 55gal drums had yellow paint chips in it. We also discovered
the primary brass disc filter tucked up under the right frame rail of the 2-l/2s.
We had to dig the paint chips out with a knife. End of fuel problem. We
continually had problems with the multi engine front motor mounts coming
loose and the engine dropping down on the steering gear box. It was SOP that
at noon stops and at days end the engines were jacked up and the bolts
tightened. Even high tensile bolts, nuts, and lock tight did not solve the
problem.

So, task accomplished and on we went back through Negeli and SE to Filtu
(N05.08E40.39) and then to Bogle Magno (N04.32E41.28). My time was up and
I left Dover Party, on my way to Ft Hood, where I spent 5 years with the 524
Topo Co and retired. My replacement at Dover was Robert L Brown (Brownie)
who I had served with at Belvoir.

ACZ at Ganali River airstrip

Dave Moore and Robert L. Brown at the Ganali River airstrip

At some time during my adventure, I was sent to Denver party for a brief time,
along with Brownie, to form a T-3 team on a single VA observation on the side
of a really big mountain. The Huey almost left us there.

Each campsite was set-up in the same manner, except the vehicles may be
opposite the tent line or may be a continuation. This saved time in loading,
finding where various things were, and in unloading. Each tent had its own
layout, which did not vary from camp to camp, again we knew where things
were. The new guys were always amazed to find that one could get up on top of
a squad tent to string the electric line. We also had two mountain tents that
were used for the spike camps and one that was set over the latrine box, the top
of which could really get hot in the sunlight.

Mess Tent

Inside the Mess Tent.

GI Tent

The generator was only run 2 hr in the morning, 1 hr at noon, and 4 hrs at night
and the reefer door was never opened when the generator was not running.
Mostly what was in the reefer were beer, soda water, and eggs. Depending, we
had one or two 400 gal water trailers. South of the lakes water supply was a
problem. We purified our own water and were very careful to see that the
potable water was properly chlorinated, run through the limestone candles, and
only put in 5 gal cans with white painted lids. We had an Ethi KP who also
doubled as the laundry guy. I don't think anyone wore underwear, except at
night. We generally showered twice a week and then the limit was 2 gal per
shower. The shower consisted of the plug end of half a 55 gal drum, set on a
stand. There was a faucet and a shower nozzle screwed into the vent hole, the
drum doubled to carry the camp wiring when we moved. It was always
preferable to bath in a stream or river.

I spent little time in Addis, so I can't say much about the area or the unit from
that aspect. I do remember the young lady at the supply room at Liddetta who
spoke, read, and typed almost flawless English. Her father was the ambassador
to Russia. Also, the young lady at the Hq who was accomplished in English and
could spell better than I.

The Ethis assigned to Dover party were an integral part of the team and without
them we would have been doomed to failure. I suspect that all of them are long
dead. The disaster that befell Ethiopia after the death of the Emperor still
continues.

Back Row: Eyealew-Hassar-Kabeda-Tefesta-Tekle---Front Row: Abraham-Feshie-Hagos

Most of the Dover Party members were draftees that had been through the
survey school, arrived as E-2s, and most left as E-5s. I appreciate their efforts
and fortitude. It would be my pleasure to serve with them anywhere. Over the
years I have forgotten their names but not them.

Left to right (viewable) Corbridge--Tom Portic--Dave Moore--Stevenson--Sam Richards--Monroe--Dave Luce